There is no change in the 2026 Budget compared to the previous budgets. This was said in the overview show "Metronome" on Radio FOCUS with host Tsonya Sabcheva, financial and economic analyst, lecturer at the UNWE Assoc. Prof. Shteryo Nozharov.
"There is no new macroeconomic forecast in it. The one that accompanies it is called "updated" and only a few numbers are touched on in it. This is not a new concept when you use the old forecast. Next, the new approach follows the old one. For example, the BDB is used as a second shadow budget, because between the first and second readings it is understood that 460 million euros for financing municipal infrastructure projects will go through the Bulgarian Development Bank, while 600 million are in front of the Budget. If we want to be honest with the voters and we want to show the real deficit, we will not hide part of it by transferring it through the BDB", commented the economist.
What is the real deficit?
"The 2026 Budget must cover the entire year, the caretaker government before the current one regularly took 1.5 billion from the BDB capital. This does not affect the deficit, but provides liquidity and saves debts. Then we received 1.4 billion under the PVP, if we add them up - it becomes a little over 2.9 billion euros of current liquidity - not counting the deficit and debts. By the end of the year we expect another 1.85 billion. The deficit figure is 5.7%, in numerical terms this is 7.3 billion. If we add all these numbers we will see that they cover 70% of the deficit, that is, if we add them to it we get approximately 11.7 billion euros, 12 billion in real terms. This makes a 9.7% deficit. If we add all these values, they will have nowhere to come from next year, because the PVP is ending, we have reduced the capital of the BDB by 1.5 billion this year, next year - unless we capitalize it as a financial focus through debts - there will be nowhere. This money will not be there. If we add them to the real budget, next year the deficit, compared to current values, will be approximately 12 billion euros, which is over 9%," explained Shteryo Nozharov.
"The current budget has already been adopted and we will expect the ECOFIN verdict on it on October 15," he added.